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Bandai Ent. Adds My-Otome 0~S.ifr~, Sora Kake Girl (Updated)

The North American anime distributor Bandai Entertainment has announced at its Otakon panel on Saturday that it licensed two series from the anime studio Sunrise: My-Otome 0~S.ifr~ and The Girl Who Leapt Through Space (Sora o Kakeru Shōjo/Sora Kake Girl). Bandai Entertainment also revealed that Bang Zoom Entertainment will dub the previously licensed K-On! anime series into English.

The three-episode original video anime series My-Otome 0~S.ifr~ serves as a prequel to the My-Otome television anime series. The story centers on Lena Sayers (played by Aya Endo) and Sifr Fran (Ami Koshimizu) — the mothers of My-Otome's main characters Arika Yumemiya and Nina Wáng, respectively.

My-Otome character designer Hirokazu Hisayuki returns not only to design the 2008 prequel, but also to direct it. Bandai Entertainment already released the previous My-Otome projects and the related My-Hime television anime series.

The 26 television episodes of The Girl Who Leapt Through Space revolve around a 17-year-old space colony girl named Akiha Shishidō (Mako). The story is set in the year 311 of the Orbital Era, when humanity has migrated to countless colony clusters in space. Akiha must battle a malevolent artificial intelligence named Leopard that has been installed on a colony. Akiha is joined by an Inter-Colony Police officer named Itsuki Kannagi (Endo), a taciturn young girl named Honoka Kawai (Yui Makino), and a robot named Imoko "Imo-chan" Shishidō (Ai Nonaka).

The Girl Who Leapt Through Space's title is an apparent wordplay on Toki o Kakeru Shōjo or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Yasutaka Tsutsui's classic novel that was adapted into several live-action television series, live-action films, manga, and an award-winning anime film. (Bandai Entertainment also released The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, but the film is otherwise unrelated to The Girl Who Leapt Through Space.) The Girl Who Leapt Through Space premiered in Japan last year under the helm of My-Hime and My-Otome director Masakazu Obara.

Bandai Entertainment announced two of the English cast members for the K-On! television anime series: Stephanie Sheh as Yui and Cristina Vee as Mio. Vee also appears in the North American marketing videos for the anime, which adapts kakifly's four-panel comedy manga about a budding high school band. Bandai Entertainment plans to ship K-On! simultaneously on DVD and Blu-ray.

Bandai Entertainment also confirmed that the second volume of Sunrise's Mobile Suit Gundam UC anime series will be available on Sony's online PlayStation Store on October 30, and the volume will then ship on Blu-ray in November. The release will include the 60-minute episode itself; 20 minutes of bonus features; Japanese and English audio; and Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles. At its Otakon panel, the distributor screened a trailer. (A Gundam UC trailer is also available on ANN.)

Update: During the short question-and-answer session at the end of the panel, Bandai Entertainment President Ken Iyadomi said that he requested the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime from Sunrise again during a meeting at Otakon. Iyadomi was responding to an audience member who asked if Bandai Entertainment is going to re-release the first Gundam anime.

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